Close to 80 per cent of smokers are likely to take a smoke break with colleagues as they consider it a networking opportunity and it provides them with a break from work, a survey has revealed.

More than 50 per cent of smokers surveyed in the city felt peer pressure made it difficult to give up the habit, according to the study.

The survey, commissioned by a general insurance company, was conducted over seven days last month among smokers in the 15-45 age group to assess the significance of “peer pressure”.

At least 33 per cent of the smokers said they were “very likely” to join their colleagues for a smoke break as “everyone needed a break at work”.

It is an “important networking opportunity”, according to 46 per cent of the smokers. For 32 per cent, it is difficult to quit smoking because of pressure from social friends and for 20 per cent it is pressure from colleagues.

The survey commissioned by ICICI Lombard found peer pressure was the prime reason behind people developing the habit.

Sixty-four per cent said they would consider quitting if helped by a friend.

“We see young people taking to smoking.... It is mostly because of peer pressure,” Sanjay Datta, chief-underwriting, claims & reinsurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd, said. “The survey has helped us understand the dynamics between a smoker and his/her peer group.”

Gautam Mukhopadhyay, oncologist and secretary of Bengal Oncology Foundation, said the government had made laws but they were poorly implemented. “The need is to increase awareness against smoking because it cannot be forcibly stopped.”